All-Star Gabi Butler New Team Debut "lionheart"

[CookieMomster]

All of our open teams have a head coach and an assistant coach. Nobody coaches themselves. They also practice at least 2x week.

 

[AScheer]

^^^^Self-coaching seems like a disaster.

Question for Open team folks (as I have never been on or coached an open team):

IS IT COMMON FOR OPEN TEAMS TO COACH THEMSELVES?

I'm guessing that established open teams don't (e.g. I don't imagine that Wildcats is self-coached) but for the average open team, is that normal?

The open team I was on was self coached. Needless to say it was more of a for fun thing than a worlds goal thing! We practiced once a week and did a few local comps. Open teams are hard. Almost everyone on the team currently coached a team or did at some point. Lots of Chiefs, not a whole lot of Indians!

Edit to explain we did have two official "coaches" however they were both also on the team. So it wasn't a complete free for all.

 

[DaniV]

^^^^Self-coaching seems like a disaster.

Question for Open team folks (as I have never been on or coached an open team):

IS IT COMMON FOR OPEN TEAMS TO COACH THEMSELVES?

I'm guessing that established open teams don't (e.g. I don't imagine that Wildcats is self-coached) but for the average open team, is that normal?

We "self coach" our international team. We have 2 "head coaches" who are in charge of logistics but since half the team is a coach of lower level teams, we all give feedback to each other and take turns standing in front to watch sections and give corrections. It actually works really well since it's 3 different gyms of coaches so we all have different ways of saying the same correction. Multiple voices/explanations really helps when someone is struggling with making the same error repeatedly.

We aren't trying to be Cheerforce Nfinity or the next Wildcats though. Mostly it's for fun and getting the younger set ready for a senior level 5 team once the host gym has enough athletes to field a team. Next year we are talking about being small international coed and the 2 coaches will no longer be on the team.

 

[AliciaM]

I've done both open and worlds open and I've never been self coached by someone who is on the team. It never usually ends well. I know a team who is a worlds team and the owners/coaches are on the team and I don't get how. But to each their own I guess?

 

[Doctorcheer]

Is it safe to say they aren't competing again this season since they aren't on UCA's schedule?

 

[njallday]

Is it safe to say they aren't competing again this season since they aren't on UCA's schedule?

There's still One Up in ATL this year April 9-10 for bids in that region

 

[FlexyTumblerMom]

I wonder if they have lost members after what happened at NCA and are thus not ready for UCA.

 

[_MRB]

^^^^Self-coaching seems like a disaster.

Question for Open team folks (as I have never been on or coached an open team):

IS IT COMMON FOR OPEN TEAMS TO COACH THEMSELVES?

I'm guessing that established open teams don't (e.g. I don't imagine that Wildcats is self-coached) but for the average open team, is that normal?

I haven't been on an open team yet. But I would really hope it's a strong NO, it seems very awkward to have an athlete coach a team that they're on. I'm pretty sure it would create tension and more problems.. Maybe not, but I would still hope no.

 

[HeatUniqueJ]

Well i'm international but i am on an open team and coaching the team at the same time, same with my co coach. We are going to Worlds this year for the first time. I can tell you it is really not easy. The athletes tend to have less respect for you as a coach , i mean they do respect you of course and do what you tell them, but they still try to argue, question and discuss things and decisions a whole lot more than they probably would if we were not on the Team. It is very difficult sometimes!
Luckily both us coaches are also doing a Stuntgroup outside of the Team. The Stuntgroup practices twice in addition to the 3 Team practices a week, so whenever we are with the Team, we can just do our skills 1 or 2 times and then focus on the rest of the Team more because we already worked on our stuff during our extra practices (since the Team skills are the same level or easier it works pretty well)
We work a lot with video recording, it helps us figure out choreography, timing, technique and all the other issues we can't see whenever we do fullouts with the Team.
So , yes , it CAN work, but i would really not recommend it at all.

 

[nicolee]

I don't think getting a Worlds bid is on the cards for them this year. Or at least, getting a bid shouldn't be their priority. From what we saw at NCA, they are nowhere near Worlds standard. They're nowhere near competition standard. Maybe they will be in a few years, but right now their priority should be avoiding injury and getting their coaching situation in order.

Many teams have poor performances early in the year then rally within a few months for Worlds. But Lionheart's problems run much deeper, since they clearly don't have a proper leader or coach. If they push themselves to be ready for a Worlds bid, someone will get hurt.